Friday, March 29, 2013

$100 Million Loan

A $100 million federal loan to build an urban playground along the Chicago River downtown is a "done deal," outgoing U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Thursday.

Appearing along the river with LaHood, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he expects groundbreaking for the extension of the Riverwalk to take place in 2014. The six-block project would run along the south bank from State Street to West Lake Street.

The national economy is tanking, our pensions system is broken beyond almost all chance of repair, Illinois credit rating is in the tank and Rahm is pleading broke with every union in the city.

Well, we can't run White House tours with volunteers at 18k a week either. But the Obama girls are on their third vacation of the year, their pop fires up the 747 every other day for a round of golf, and "Shotgun Joe" Biden's hotel room bill was half a million for one night in Paris.

Didnt a city do this beforeand halfway through the project learned they could not pay for all the improvements. The conected got rich and moved on the public got a half ass job and the bill. Who is connected in Chicago. Another couple of million in Rhams pocket for nothing and he is out of here.

Don't forget that Rahm is also pushing to rebuild Malcolm X College for close to a half million dollars (the existing college is obsolete after less than forty-five years -- translation the vandals have wrecked the place and the salaried patronage deadbeats have not done routine maintenance) which will magically transform the West Side and turn illiterates into contributing members of society. Talk about bad medicine.

I said it before I will say it again, the city is not broke they always have money for what they want. But the unions and media believe the mayor when he cries poor! Just tell the mayor to build another park! How about Pension Park!! Once again us first responders mean nothing to him except the ones standing around him on the train!

Is there any doubt when you idiots keep electing Democrats - who got us in this situation - a bunch of bleeding hearts - NO ONE IS EVER HELD ACCOUNTABLE - with the exception of the lowest guy on the totem pole

So it is 100 million dollar loan…..for a project we don’t know how much it will cost. What is the total cost?They say 70% will come from boat operators…..so 30% from taxpayers?…which would be 30 million!Who pays for the overages, extras, change orders?The city is broke…the county is broke…the state is broke…the country is broke….Who loans money on a project they do not even know the cost of?If no loan…..how can it be a done deal?

This news story highlights what is wrong with government and journalism.Poor planning and nobody asking the right questions.

One of my fond memories of that "riverwalk" is when, as a wagon man in the early '80s, the marine unit (or fire boat, the scotch does that to your memory) left a bagged floater for us to transport on one of the few benches down there, then left the scene to go to eat. That guy would have been down there a month if we didn't actually look for him. The tourists would probably get a kick out of that these days.

He does not care about our pensions that is why he will never try to get any funding to fix them. He is telling us fix them our selves while he keeps trying to change the laws so he does not have to pay what is already required by law. Our health and welfare is not important to him only his legacy just like Daley. Just another RAT...

Guaranteed it will become a piss bum and dealer hang out just like the park at State and Vanburen that I believe was also built with the feds money. Its like a weed shopping bazaar for the Superdorm idiots. What a fucking waste!

Another example of government wasteful spending and misplaced priorities. There are roads and bridges here that needed repair for years and pensions that have been neglected for years, but building another park in a city already full of them is more important.

Why no thugs in the artist rendering? This is a waste of money that IL and Chi don't have. Today is Good Friday as we mark the 10th anniversary of another jerk who authorized the tearing up of Mieg's Field so Chi could have another park.MS

100 million to dress up a pig. It's still a pig. The Chicago River is polluted and in some areas contaminated. 100 million isn't going to improve decades of using it as a garbage can. During floods the tampons and condoms do a dance on the water.

OT, ..Speaking of money. I tried explaining dollar cost averaging to the cops at work when the market dumped in 07 and 09. I said stay with the equities, they will come back, the market always does. They said I was wrong. Foolish for staying with stocks. They were getting out...and they did. My deferred just bumped over 325 g's. The ship has come in sorta like the Queen Mary and they missed it... Its true.people who laugh last do laugh best..

The "Pork King of Illinois" strikes again. It was nice to be rid of him for a while.For what my opinion is worth, I'd say he's setting up some contributions to his personal pension fund from contractor contributions to augment his Federal one when he leaves Washington. Id like to see the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois keep a very close watch on who gets the contracts for this barrel of pork.Cui bono?

According to the US Census the population of Chicago is estimated to be 2,707,120 people and 21.4% of those people (579,323) are living below the povety level.

Those numbers are 2011 estimates.

This is 2013.

I think it's safe to say that Chicago has at least 25% of its people living below poverty level today.

On what do I base that? The fact that the number of people depending on the Food Stamp system has grown at just under 10% over the last year alone.

The fact that Chicago's unemployment jumped from 9.8% in Jan to 10.3% in Feb .

How many Chicagoans are going to benefit from this $100 million dollar six city block long fiasco?

How many Chicagoans are going to benfit from a $55 million dollar Maggie Daley park and six-figure per mile bike paths?

We have no money for education of the children that we will all look forward to one day in the future to have good jobs, compete and support our infrastructure and our pensions, our retirement, our healthcare. But we have money for this b.s.

The mayor is selling us all out for a fast buck.

Chicago doesn't have a mayor. Chicago has a King! Like medival times the churls of the kingdom are expected to beg the King for favors while the King picks and chooses the winners and losers at his discretion.

No-one held the royal Daley family accountable for ripping up Meigs Field in the middle of the night and so the rape, pillage, and plundering goes on...

So do the math.. The river walk will cost a full-time min-wage WalMart worker that is living day to day hand to mouth at least a full days pay.

What are they getting in return? Where's their return on investment?

The last thing they need is a river walk, a tibute park to an ex-mayors wife or a golden brick bike path.

build a $55 million dollar park right next to an existing park then blow $100 million on a riverwalk but put continue to put band aids on the crime issue. Continue to allow emergency personal's equipment to age and fall into disrepair. Dont pay for new cars for Police or fire, watch what happens to your parks and riverwalks when no one is there to keep them safe.

They use their new math to project it will save what? $560 million dollars OVER TEN YEARS!

It always sound so impressive, the savings does, when you plug in whatever rate of inflation you like to make the numbers look good no matter if they are anywhere near reality.

HEY! When you gonna learn?

It's the same game with our pensions.

They plug in some number, let's say it's 8% and tell us that the pensions should earn 8% this year from investments and so we don't need to make a pension contribution.

Out right theft.

10 year US treasuries are earning under 2%. The S&P, the stock market is just now at what it was back in 2007. Hell at 8% compounded interest the value should double after nine or ten years. Is the S&P any where near double?

Nevertheless, using their numbers: $55 million for Maggie park would of kept 54 schools open for another year. $100 million for a river walk would of kept 54 schools open for two more years on top of that. Now we're at three year with no school closings. Close just 27 schools and that wasted money on parks and paths could of kept 27 schools open for six years. Not to mention what the money from the parking meters and parking garages could of done. Money wasted on bike paths. Money wasted on Cease Fire.

Money wasted on Taste of Chicago.

How could the World-Class city not have a Taste? If we cut the money losing Taste we won't be able to look like big shots funneling money to Hollywood types. So if we blow a few more million it's "necessary" because the Kings issued an edict saying so.

This loan is to be paid back by the taxpayers regardless of whether the constructed improvements ever generate any revenue to the city or not. It is borrowing. Has to be paid. Taxpayers are on the hook. Can't be borrowed in the bond market so borrowed from the Feds. Will need to be paid by taxpayers. City council blindly signs off.

Don't forget that Rahm is also pushing to rebuild Malcolm X College for close to a half million dollars (the existing college is obsolete after less than forty-five years -- translation the vandals have wrecked the place and the salaried patronage deadbeats have not done routine maintenance) which will magically transform the West Side and turn illiterates into contributing members of society. Talk about bad medicine.

In other news, pigs can now fly.

3/29/2013 07:15:00 AM

that's half a Billion dollars, just to begin what he's planning on spending $7+ Billion on.

I left a comment in the Sun Times web edition about this story reminding voters that the increased payments to our pension funds under state law SB 3538 must start to be paid at about the same time that this "loan" comes due; asking where the money will come from. Checked for responses 1/2 an hour later and noticed the the comment section was disabled. Just a coincidence I'm sure.

Don't know if it's ok to copy this from another SCC thread, but this is some seriously scary shit. The ballerina's brother sounds like a complete nut job---a seriously DANGEROUS nut job. Read the article linked at the bottom--it will scare the beejesus out of you. At least it did me! I hope he and Rahm get cancer next week. Before you judge my comment, read the article!

Anonymous said..."When rahm isn't doing his civil servant deed as the mayor of Chicago, he moonlights riding the train to elderly people's houses as dr kevorkian. Assisting in the death/euthanization of elderly people by politicians is all part of the new medical laws that were not yet printed in the Obamacare bill when it was passed."

"LET OLD PEOPLE DIE WITH NO MEDICAL CARE," SAYS MAYOR EMANUEL'S BROTHER EZEKIEL

"...services that promote the continuation of the polity—those that ensure healthy future generations, ensure development of practical reasoning skills, and ensure full and active participation by citizens in public deliberations—are to be socially guaranteed as basic. Covering services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens are not basic, and should not be guaranteed. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia."(Hastings Center Report, November-December, 1996)

Anonymous said...OT, ..Speaking of money. I tried explaining dollar cost averaging to the cops at work when the market dumped in 07 and 09. I said stay with the equities, they will come back, the market always does. They said I was wrong. Foolish for staying with stocks. They were getting out...and they did. My deferred just bumped over 325 g's. The ship has come in sorta like the Queen Mary and they missed it... Its true.people who laugh last do laugh best..

So there is NO MONEY for fireworks, no money for Taste, no money for Venetian Night, no money for pensions, no money for pothole repair, no money for schools, no money, no money...But now we can start a new FESTIVAL honoring the Chicago Fire?We are honoring a FIRE?Rahm Emanuel has officially lost his mind.

This is pitiful. How can the city keep crying broke and come up with this? And I don't know what, if anything, we residents can do about it. It seems that there are no reins on the ridiculous, unneeded, and useless projects this city can come up with, nor are there any reins on the mayor, aldercreatures, and city hall as a whole. If I had any ideas, I would put them forth, but I don't. And to the federal government (mr president), shame on you for allowing this. All this talk about closing schools, cutting pensions and programs because the city is broke is a pile of shit. You all need to put the money where it would do most good, not on a fancy urban playground. Who goes there anyway? Hell, there are enough things up that way already. Most of the regular working people (aka URBANites) in this city can't go downtown to a playground. After working a full shift most just take the kids to the neighborhood park, and those are sorely lacking as it is. So, who is this really for? Mayoral self aggrandizement? Tourists? Or is this just putting a band-aid on all the other sores in this crap city to make it look good? If it is, a much bigger band-aid is needed.

Oh man...social media has Rahm and his b.s. about "the children" and with regard to school closings on BLAST.

shocking-rahms-shock-doctrine

..via thenation.com

...Stunning, stunning, stunning: As even the district’s official school closing documents acknowledge, the number “145,000” refers to the number of Chicagoans between the ages of 0 and 19 the city has lost, a large number of which are not even school age, many of those who are school-aged not being CPS students. So Apples to Apples ran the numbers of students CPS has actually lost: only about 30,000, about a fifth of their mendacious claim. It’s enough to make an honest person want to scream.

Here, meanwhile, are other statistics—accurate statistics. Five schools, almost a fifth of the total, are in the Carbrini-Green ward, the 27th—a prime area for gentrification over which real estate developers salivate. (Here’s Mrs. Harris: “I think the reason they really wanna close this school here is because of the land. I don’t know how much these homes cost, over here, or condos—$200,000?”) The area is dotted with high-performing magnet schools; but of course none of the Manierre kids are being reassigned to those—they’re being assigned to a school that’s 98 percent black. Eighty percent of students affected by school closings, in fact, are black; but only 40 percent of students as a whole in the system are black. (Signs hoisted on the dais of the rally on Daley Plaza starred the faces of African-American heroes whose names adorn some of the schools being closed: writer Henry Dumas. Singer Mahalia Jackson. Eighteenth-century scientist Benjamin Banneker.)

“Everybody on the board did not look at this decision as numbers on a spreadsheet,” said Rahm at his sunburned Saturday press conference. “We looked at it and viewed it as what can we do to have every child have a high-quality education regardless of their neighborhood, regardless of their circumstances, regardless of where they live.” Yeah, right. There is a reasonable suspicion that a lot of these shuttered schools are going to be turned over to charter operators. In 2012, belying every “underutilization” claim, the school board announced plans to open 100 new charter, “turnaround” and “contract” schools over the next five years. Considering that fact, here are some other accurate statistics concerning the United Neighborhood Organization, or UNO, the city’s most prominent charter company, whose CEO, Juan Rangel, is a major supporter of Mayor Emanuel. $1.5 million: the amount a company owned by the brother of a top UNO executive, Miguel d’Escoto, got for work as the “owner’s representative” for UNO school construction. $10 million: the amount another d’Escoto brother stands to make installing windows in UNO schools. $98 million: the amount of the state grant to UNO for school construction from which this beneficence derives.

it’s about real people vs. really rich people, read another of the Daley Plaza placards—rich people like school board president David Vitale, the former CEO of the Chicago Board of Trade, vice chairman fo the DNP Select Income Fund, board member for United Continental Holdings, for which he was paid $216,688 in 2011....

You see why Chicago teachers are angry. And why they’re not going away. And why they promise more civil disobedience. “So lemme tell you what you’re gonna do,” shouted Karen Lewis at the rally. “On the first day of school, you show up at your real school! You show up at your real school! Don’t let these people take your schools.” They just might. They’ve beat Rahm before. They could beat him again.

Are they naming anything else for Maggie Daley? Has she been honored enough for being married to the stuttering prick? Damn, maybe sainthood is next for her, married to Mayor Mumbles and mother to the thug alcoholic bum Patrick. Yeah, maybe she does qualify for something extra for putting up with those two idiots.

I see the state is looking into how the millions of education funds were wpent for UNO and their network of private schools. Rangel, madigan and Burke were seated together, probably discussing how to divvy up more millions of tax payer funds for their family and friends. The state looking into this? Really6? Lisa madigan looking into this? I doubt it. How about a federal grand jury for starters. When you pay your brother 2 million in " management fees", something stinks.

Yeah, maybe she does qualify for something extra for putting up with those two idiots.

3/29/2013 11:02:00 PM

Putting up with them? She took part in the creation of one and willingly nurtured both. And she was a partner with the shanks in all of the financial shenanigans and fiascos that have put us behind the eight ball. She qualifies for nothing but contempt. $55M for Maggie Daley Park is a sin.

And, how long is TD 9.5 going to approve security/valet service for the shanks? It has been near two years since the shanks (was forced to step down) retired.

Why aren't we, as Chicago taxpayers, allowed to simply vote on what projects get done and those that don't. Hold a special referendom once a year with a list of projects that will use ANY tax payer funds and let the citizens vote!

Why aren't we, as Chicago taxpayers, allowed to simply vote on what projects get done and those that don't. Hold a special referendom once a year with a list of projects that will use ANY tax payer funds and let the citizens vote!

3/30/2013 03:58:00 PM

that would work, in a world not saturated with those partaking of the seven deadly sins.

>>>Anonymous said... I bet 10% of the money comes back to rahm in shoe boxes...why else would we be building all these projects when we're broke, it's the way they steal from us.

3/29/2013 10:22:00 PM<<<

Now that rings a bell!

How many of you are old enough to remember Illinois Secretary of State Paul Powell. When he was the S.O.S. you made out your checks for licenses simply to "Paul Powell". He is famous for the line, "There's only one thing worse than a defeated politician, and that's a broke one." All Democrats ever since follow this philosphy.

I would have loved to have pulled a burglary on that house. He died with all those shoeboxes full of unspent cash.